A Story of Hope: It’s Not Our Story, It’s God’s Story

“…And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:5

As JoJo Williams shared with us, their adoption story “is a story that only He could have written.”

While JoJo and her husband Doug had always had a heart for adoption, the timing had never been right. “We were married later in life. We also had several failed adoption attempts—we moved, or it didn’t work out and we had two miscarriages,” JoJo said.

When they felt called to pursue adoption again, they worried that as missionaries, they’d have trouble adopting while working overseas in Saudi Arabia. While abroad, they met a family that had adopted through AGCI and had done a home study from afar. “That gave us hope,” JoJo said.

While visiting Doug’s family in Portland, they decided to visit AGCI’s office and get started. Just before they left, Doug told JoJo that he felt God was telling them to wait. “I was heartbroken, because we were ready to go. So we put it on hold. He really felt like God was telling us we would have our own children by Christmas,” JoJo said.

When they weren’t pregnant by that time, JoJo felt she was done. “I felt like I had to get off this roller coaster. So we went back to Saudi Arabia and nothing more was said about it. I thought to myself, we’ll see if it happens. If it doesn’t, I’ll give my life to something else. As much as I wanted children, I knew that God would have other things to fill that in my life,” JoJo said.

But then, things changed for JoJo. “I had this dream. God was specifically speaking to me through this dream, “ JoJo said. “He said, ‘you need to adopt and you need to start it now.’” So they followed God’s call and started the process. The Williams had always envisioned that they would adopt two girls at the same time, from two different families. “Before we started the paperwork we always knew that their names would be Abigail and Jessica,” JoJo said.

After beginning the home study process, the Williams were advised that they should adopt one child at a time, given that they were living abroad and had a limited support system. “We didn’t know what to do,” JoJo said. “We prayed that if we were making a mistake by filing to adopt just one child, let them offer us siblings. We never told anyone about our prayer.”

As the Williams waited in Saudi Arabia, they tried to come up with a name for their little girl. “We couldn’t come up with a name,” JoJo said. “We couldn’t split Abigail and Jessica up, it was always two in our hearts.”

Suddenly, in May, the Williams were sent home from Saudi Arabia to Colorado Springs. They were number 12 on the waiting list and without a home, jobs, or a car. The Williams figured they wouldn’t get a call for a child until October at the earliest. And then, in July, they got a call. “It was Hollen and she said, we’ve got twin girls in foster care and God would not let me get past your name,” JoJo said.

“We took them sight unseen. We knew nothing about them. We didn’t know what they looked like, we didn’t know their medicals, but we knew our prayer. Doug said they’re ours. We will take them. And we did,” JoJo said.

They still needed to get settled before they could bring the girls home, so they moved to Cheyenne and then traveled the week before Thanksgiving to bring home their 22-month-old twin girls. “We knew without a doubt that they were God’s children for us,” JoJo said.

The girls adjusted well and about a year later, Doug and JoJo began to think about adoption again. “We just looked at each other and said, let’s go back and get a boy,” JoJo said. Due to the adoption moratorium in Romania at the time, the Williams knew they needed to look elsewhere to complete their family.

Then the Williams heard about the Guatemala program. “My heart just leapt at the thought of a baby. They were bringing babies home at 3 months old and I never dreamed I would have a baby. It just doesn’t happen with international adoption,” JoJo said.

Soon after beginning the process, the Williams received a call that a birth mother had just contacted the Hannah’s Hope in Guatemala and was pregnant with twin boys. “We asked them to give us some time to think about it,” JoJo said. As they began to imagine what this could look like for their family, their hope started to rise. “We thought, wow, that might be pretty cool to have twin boys and twin girls,” JoJo said.

Shortly after, the Williams received another call from AGCI. There was no birthmother; the caller had attempted to scam AGCI in an effort to get money. The Williams were disappointed, but knew that God would unite them with their child at the right time. In a miraculous turn of events, the Williams then received a second call: this time, a birth mother had come into a Hannah’s Hope. AGCI performed an ultrasound and she was pregnant with twin boys! “We said, we’ll take them,” JoJo said.

At this time, it was October and the birth mother was due in January. Due to health complications, she went in labor three times. On the third time, doctors were unable to stop her. “AGCI put her into a private hospital which saved the boys’ lives. The boys were born at 2 pounds, 2.5 ounces,” JoJo said.

“AGCI had to go to the board to get permission to put the boys’ birth mother in a private hospital,” JoJo said. “They knew it was going to cost a lot of money. The board’s first response was; you know we cannot be all things to all people. And then they said, wait a minute; we need to do all we can for these boys. AGCI spent over $50,000 dollars to bring these boys home.”

After they were born, the boys stayed in the hospital for a month and then AGCI brought them to Hannah Hope’s. “They thrived there,” JoJo said. After some paperwork headaches with Guatemalan officials, they were off to pick up their boys, still under a year old. “We traveled again, the week before Thanksgiving to take them home. It was just amazing, what God did, through AGCI.”

By having hope and believing that God would write the story made for them, the Williams ended with a life they could have never imagined. “And that’s how we ended up with two sets of twins!” JoJo said.

To learn more about adopting through AGCI and lifesaving care provided by our Hannah’s Hope homes, please reach out to us today!